


Take You Down

by Dracosawkwardhug



Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassins & Hitmen, Brecon Beacons (Alex Rider), Canon-Typical Violence, Multi, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:34:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22481911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracosawkwardhug/pseuds/Dracosawkwardhug
Summary: Alex has a tough life. He suffers, he makes people suffer. He's lost family and friends alike. He's taken down the world's largest crime syndicate. What now?
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	Take You Down

**Author's Note:**

> hey hey! so this is a kinda revamp kinda not of a fic that i started but didn't complete. kinda because i did start the fic and still have the basic plot outline in the same way, but kinda not because i know how to write unlike back then. trust me i read through it and uh yiKES. Also i physically caNNOT tell y'all how many times i've used this work as a literary submission im going to cry fr i think everyone i know irl knows this account is me this is so embarrassing im going to diE. will this Dooming Knowledge stop me from linking people to it? No. ;-;  
> Comment!! tell me what you thought!! Drink water and stay healthy!!!!!
> 
> ~vee

Alex Rider lived a life far from what was ordinary. He knew that. He’d accepted the fact that he wouldn’t be like all the other 20-year-old university students who struggled to pay their student loans, rent, water and power bills, manage a part-time job and pass with decent grades. He didn’t have loans, he had his apartment, paid the bills with no problem, he… had a job (it wasn’t mainstream or usual for a university student so did it even count? Alex was pretty sure it counted, he did get paid) and got great grades. But, not with the lack of trying, no. He worked hard, harder perhaps than all of his friends- and wasn’t that a novelty for him, friends, as in plural, as in more than one person who knew him, liked him and had a decent friendship with. He worked weeks at a stretch only to come back to his far too big apartment and go back to university.

He honestly did not expect to make it that far, and by that, whether he meant his continued survival or education level he still didn’t know but the fact was, he didn’t expect it. Walking into university campus on the first day had been a rush, exhilarating and freeing and knowing that “Hey! Look I made it! I can do something now!”. Well right up until he realized a couple of ‘Professors’ looked way too familiar for it to be a coincidence, but that was something he knew was bound to happen at one point or the other so he thought might as well get used to it.

It almost reminded him of life before Ian’s death. Or rather school. He’d been popular, with great grades and several girls supporting his then fragile masculine ego. Which he didn’t have anymore, not after that time when he was 17 with the goat and the wedding dre- yeah, it had been a couple of years since he’d had a fragile anything. Of course, then everything changed so drastically. It changed so much he’d laughed himself sick the first time he realized some of these things. Things like the bullies.

The teachers had almost pretended like he didn't exist, they had turned it into a habit to mark him absent on the attendance roster. And not to mention the thing that made Alex really, truly realize how much things had changed: the fact that the bullies forgot about him. The day Alex realized this; he knew things had changed for him irreparably. These were reasons enough to not like school but of course, to be the ugly, squished, canned cherry on the top, he had the dozen or so intelligence agencies breathing down his neck and generally making a nuisance of themselves (because god forbid the Russians and Americans work together).

The first time he came back from a mission while he was in university, it had taken him a while to remember that no people didn't think of him as druggie rider and god is that really how 20-year-olds speak these days? He had always been surrounded by people decades older while he was on missions so inevitable he seemed to have adopted a similar way of speaking. Getting back into the flow was hard but that’s why he had Tom. The only one who stuck by him through all these years, he had remained a constant in his life and he knew, come hell or high water Tom was there to stay. Then again Tom was the only one who knew who he really was. Well, one of the ones that knew him.

Jack Starbright was dead to the world and had been for about 5 years at this point. But not really. There were fewer than 10 people on the planet that knew that Janet Carden (formerly Jack Starbright) was living in a lovely two-story villa at the Malibu coast. They were the only ones that knew that after the car had blown up and Alex was forced to show MI6 personnel the burn site, Alex had, for a rare and memorable moment, thanked his training. For without his training, he would have hardly noticed her hand move. The rest was a flurry of movements, sounds and lights.

Later, Alex was told that he had screamed bloody murder at the men and put the fear of God into them. He didn’t remember any of it but if the furtive glances the guards still sent his way were any indication, then he’d believe Crawley on this one. When he came back to himself, he was sitting on a chair at her bedside, his eyes glued to her chest as if he was scared the movements of her chest would cease if he looked away for even a moment. Up and down and up and down and up-and-down and ohshe’salivepleasethankyouimsorryallmyfaultimsorryimso-

Crawley had taken her to the safehouse that was to be her new home, at least until she learned how to walk with her prosthetics. If she decided to stay after, then it was entirely up to her and MI6 couldn’t do a damn about it.

No matter how many jokes Jack made about “basically being a cyborg” Alex knew she was hurting and he knew it was his fault. And MI6’s but his too. She would adamantly refuse, but Alex wasn’t blind, he knew it was his actions that had cost her both of her legs and an arm, and while she hadn’t complained yet, it would only be a matter of time until she complained about being cooped up inside like a prisoner for years. That, Alex had found, scared him the most because yes she could walk now and yes she knew self-defence now, but there were still people out there that wouldn’t hesitate in sending her six feet under if they found out her much alive status. Of course, there were people who doubted her death still but that was somewhat of a byproduct of getting involved in his sort of business - and the unusual ability of some dead people being, in fact, very much alive. 

He had known then that there was no way he was getting out of this job. This was what he would die doing. When he was finally forced to talk to Mrs Jones (who was apparently the new head?? wiLD) she offered him an out. To take Jack and flee the country, never to be contacted by any governmental or secret service. It had been tempting but he had finally refused, because when had he taken the easy way out? Never. He had never taken the easy way out because if it was one thing his job taught him, it was that the easy way often didn’t exist. It didn’t really matter if he wasn’t contacted by governmental agencies because he was self-aware enough to know that he had made quite a name for himself and that various “independent organizations” akin to Scorpia would try their hand at recruiting him in their stead. A little secret Alex had found out? Those independent organisations were usually the bad guys and more often than not wanted to kill him and he’d rather not chance that - especially if Jack was with him. And he had just had his whole “I’m never getting out of this job” revelation so it was no use to go back on his word.


End file.
